PETA Buzzed Over NYT Magazine’s Bee Fashion, Others Not So Much

In this past weekend’s New York Times Magazine, there was an illustrious fashion photo shoot of high end products slathered in honey and populated with lots of bees. Featured items included a $35,000 Lana Marks tote bag, Christian Louboutin shoes, and a Chopard watch listed at $5,120, among other conspicuously consumptive accessories. ANIMAL contacted PETA to get their take on the fashionable, insect crawling editorial, and they released this statement:

“The entire world is talking about the fact that bees are dying offâ€”The New York Times has even reported on itâ€”and yet The New York Times Magazine does a fashion spread with bees in it. Thatâ€™s pretty irresponsible.”

However, Joanne Thomas, admitted wife of an ex-fashion photographer and President of the Long Island Beekeepers Club didn’t have a problem with the Gray Lady using the sticky food source or the insects, “[I] see why they did it. Yellow and honey colors are the fashion rage right now.” Thomas, who used have hives on the Upper East Side, doesn’t think that any bees are harmed in shoots like this, describing the process:

“A beekeeper is brought on the set to apply synthetic “Queen Bee Pheromone” to the objects. The bees naturally cluster on the item. Then, a soft bee brush is used to remove them back into a bee box with sugar syrup feed provided for them until they are returned to their home hive. Also, there is a chance that the bees were photoshopped into the images.”